2. Black Thought Blasts the Censored Huck Finn

In 2011, NewSouth Books announced the release of an edition of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn that replaced all the n-words with “slave.” (Apparently that was supposed to be less demeaning?) Their reason: even though Twain was writing against racists, the slurs made the book too awkward to teach.

In his “NY State of Mind” freestyle, Black Thought references the controversy with maximum political incorrectness, getting off a double entendre, a shot at his rivals, and a dig at white guilt in two quick lines. (As a bonus, he shouts out Ginsberg and Kerouac on the same track.)

3. Black Star Rhymes The Bluest Eye

This one might be the deepest homage on the list. Underground pioneers Black Star took a lyrical passage on the black experience from Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye…

4. Jean Grae Serves It Up to the Righteous

This one’s all about context. Named after the unplayable level at the end of vintage video games, the track “Kill Screen” conjures up the afterlife or even the apocalypse. In these lines Jean poses as gamer, prophet, and mythical creature—foretelling her own phoenix-like death and resurrection and name-dropping Leviathan, the biblical sea-beast who’ll be “served up to the righteous at the end of time.”

5. André 3000 Compares Himself to Hemingway, Looks Modest

André 3000’s first verse on Frank Ocean’s “Pink Matter” is a poignant short story in rhyme. But he rhetorically cuts himself off midway through:

6. All Natural Offers a Whole Courseload of Schooling

—Chicago group All Natural gives a crash course in American lit, alluding to Langston Hughes' satirical alter ego “Simple,” punning on Zora Neale Hurston’s middle name, and throwing in a reference to Uncle Tomming as in Uncle Tom’s Cabin. (Tom Cruise doesn’t count as a literary reference, although he did star in that adaptation of Anne Rice’s Interview With the Vampire.) It all adds up to a devastating triple-edged attack on sellout rappers.

7. MF DOOM Channels Shakespeare

“The beast with two backs” comes from Shakespeare’s Othello. (Pretty evocative way of describing two people doing it, right? Not bad, Shakespeare.) The villain, Iago, says it to piss off Desdemona’s father—who’s also Othello’s father-in-law:

8. The Roots Give It Up For Chinua Achebe

From “100% Dundee” off The Roots' album Things Fall Apart, a title that’s also a shout to Achebe (and W. B. Yeats). Why does Black Thought get a second spot on this list? Because Achebe just died earlier this year, he was a great writer, and he didn’t get enough respect. End of story.